NH Department of Justice OVC Opioid ACERT Project

OVC’s mission is to enhance the Nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering discretionary award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop innovative training and technical assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance. The purpose of the FY 2018 Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims is to address an urgent gap in crime victim services related to the opioid epidemic and to expand upon existing or establish new programs to provide services to children and youth who are victimized as a result of the opioid crisis. The overarching goal of this program is to support children and youth who are crime victims as a result of the opioid crisis by providing direct services and support to these young victims at a community or jurisdictional level.

With this award, the New Hampshire Department of Justice (NH DOJ) will address an urgent gap in crime victim services related to the opioid epidemic and expand upon existing and establish new programs to provide services to children and youth who are victimized as a result of the opioid crisis in the city of Manchester, New Hampshire. The City will be subcontracting with MCHC and YWCA NH. MCHC will hire a Project Coordinator, provide a Behavioral Health Consultant and Adolescent Health Case Manager to provide mental health services in the clinical and schools settings to support children impacted by the opioid crisis. MCHC will also subcontract with an expert trainer to train school personnel in trauma-informed services to better support students exposed to trauma, including familial substance misuse and opioid addiction. MCHC will also subcontract with the Judge Baker Children’s Center at Harvard University to train Pediatric Behavioral Health staff in the Modular Approach to Therapy for Children (MATCH), a scientifically proven counseling program for children, teenagers, and families. The YWCA will develop three weekly trauma-informed support groups for children impacted by the opioid crisis.

CA/NCF